Development of PLGA micro- and nanorods with high capacity of surface ligand conjugation for enhanced targeted delivery

Particle shape has been recognized as one of the key properties of nanoparticles in biomedical applications including targeted drug delivery. Targeting ability of shape-engineered particles depends largely on targeting ligands conjugated on the particle surface. However, poor capacity for surface ligand conjugation remains a problem in anisotropic nanoparticles made with biodegradable polymers such as PLGA. In this study, we prepared anisotropic PLGA nanoparticles with abundant conjugatable surface functional groups by a film stretching-based fabrication method with poly (ethylene-alt-maleic acid) (PEMA). Scanning electron microscopy images showed that microrods and nanorods were successfully fabricated by the PEMA-based film stretching method. The presence of surface carboxylic acid groups was confirmed by confocal microscopy and zeta potential measurements. Using the improved film-stretching method, the amount of protein conjugated to the surface of nanorods was increased three-fold. Transferrin-conjugated, nanorods fabricated by the improved method exhibited higher binding and internalization than unmodified counterparts. Therefore, the PEMA-based film-stretching system presented in this study would be a promising fabrication method for non-spherical biodegradable polymeric micro- and nanoparticles with high capacity of surface modifications for enhanced targeted delivery.